Hey Reader,

Yudi here,

Aditya had 10+ interview calls and was converting almost none of them.

He was a solid engineer. Two years of work experience in India. A master's from SUNY Binghamton. Good at DSA.

Still wasn't working. What was missing wasn't skill. It was strategy.

Here's the full job search system he used to eventually crack Microsoft - broken down into actions you can take this week.

BEFORE YOU APPLY: FIX YOUR FOUNDATION

Most people start the job search by opening LinkedIn and clicking Apply.

That's the wrong starting point.

Before you send a single application, get these two things right.

1. Your resume has to be actually good - not "good enough"

Aditya had one advantage many international students ignore: prior work experience in India.

He didn't hide it or trim it down to seem like a fresh graduate. He put it front and center - and it paid off directly. One company fast-tracked him for H-1B consideration because of that Indian work experience.

Three things that made his resume work:

• Every bullet pointed to an outcome, not a task. Not "worked on microservices." But what did those microservices do? Reduce latency? Handle X million requests? Put the number in.
• He kept the format clean and ATS-friendly. No columns, no graphics, no icons. Recruiters at big tech use automated filters. A fancy resume is often a rejected resume.
• He used his India job switch prep to his advantage. When he was switching jobs in India, he had already built out notes and structured his resume. He refreshed that foundation rather than starting over.

Action this week:

1. Open your resume. For every bullet point, ask: "So what?"
2. If you can't answer that with a number or an outcome - rewrite the bullet.

2. Your Indian/international experience is leverage, not a liability

This market is brutal for everyone. But international students with prior work experience have one edge most people don't use.

Hiring Managers in USA know that Indian tech talent is strong, especially engineers who have shipped real products in high-volume, high-pressure environments.

Frame your experience that way.

You weren't just "a software engineer at XYZ." You were an engineer who built and maintained systems serving X users, shipped Y features under tight deadlines, worked in a team of Z people across multiple time zones.

That narrative makes a hiring manager see a candidate who already knows how to work. That's rare.

THE APPLICATION STRATEGY: VOLUME + TARGETING, NOT ONE OR THE OTHER

Here's where most international students get the strategy backwards.

They either: (a) Apply only to the top 10 companies and wait, or (b) Spray and pray with 200 applications to any company hiring

Neither works.

Apply wide - much wider than feels comfortable

Aditya's regret: being too selective about which companies to interview with.

In this market, if a company is willing to give you an interview - take it.

You are not committing to joining them. You are getting a rep. And reps in a real interview setting are worth more than any amount of solo prep.

The goal of the first 30 applications is not to get an offer. The goal is to figure out where your gaps are - in your story, in your technical answers, in your behavioral responses - while the pressure is lower.

Apply to your dream companies. Apply to companies you've never heard of. Apply to companies you wouldn't move for. Take every call you can get.

But target strategically within that volume

Tier your list:

• Tier 1 (Dream): Microsoft, Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon - apply, but don't bank on these first
• Tier 2 (Target): Mid-size tech companies, Series B/C startups with engineering teams, big enterprises with tech divisions
• Tier 3 (Practice): Any company that will give you an interview round

Start taking Tier 3 calls first. By the time your Tier 1 calls come, you'll have done 5–6 real interviews and you'll feel the difference.

Track every application - treat it like a pipeline

If you're applying to 50–100 companies and not tracking, you will lose context fast.

You'll forget what you said in one call, miss a follow-up, or confuse two JDs in a debrief.

Use a spreadsheet or a free tool like Teal to track: company, role, date applied, interview stage, next action, outcome.

This sounds basic. Most people still don't do it.

DURING THE SEARCH: THE HABITS THAT COMPOUND

This is what separates people who crack it in 3 months from people who are still searching at month 8.

Hackathons are a job search strategy, not just a fun thing to do

Aditya specifically said this is something he wished he had done more of.

Here's why it matters beyond the obvious:

• Hackathons force you to think at a system level - which is exactly what system design interviews are testing
• You get a live project you actually built under pressure - not a tutorial you followed
• Recruiters attend or sponsor hackathons. You meet people who are directly in the hiring chain
• Even virtual hackathons put your GitHub activity on the record - which shows up when a recruiter looks you up

Action: Find 2–3 hackathons in the next 3 months. Devpost com is the best directory. Filter for virtual if you can't travel. Enter even if you think you're not ready.

LinkedIn: post what you're learning, even if it feels small

Aditya said this directly: he would read something, learn something, and post it - even if he wasn't sure it was good enough.

The compounding effect of this is underrated.

Recruiters at Microsoft, Google, and Amazon search LinkedIn daily. A profile that shows active engagement with technical content signals seriousness. A profile that hasn't been touched in 18 months signals nothing.

You don't need to go viral. You need to be findable and credible.

Post once a week. A tool you learned, a concept you understood better, a mistake you made in a mock interview. Keep it real, keep it short.

Attend events - virtual ones count

Microsoft, Google, and every big tech company run virtual info sessions, engineering talks, and university outreach events.

These are not just for information. They are for visibility.

Recruiters host these events. When they search for candidates later, they often pull from people who attended, asked questions, or followed up after.

Action: Follow the university recruiting pages of your top 5 target companies on LinkedIn. Turn on notifications. Show up to every free event you can.

THE INTERVIEW CONVERSION PROBLEM

Getting calls is one problem. Converting them is a separate one.

Aditya was getting calls. They weren't converting. Here's what changed.

Mock interviews - start before you feel ready

His biggest regret in the entire process: starting mocks too late.

When you prep alone, you learn the answer. When you do a mock, you discover whether you can actually communicate the answer under pressure, to a human, in real time.

Those are completely different skills.

Start mocks in week 3 or 4 of your prep - not month 3. The discomfort you feel is the entire point. It's showing you gaps you can't see from solo prep.

Where to find mock partners:

• Your own network - classmates, alumni from your university, friends at other programs
• Pramp (free peer-to-peer mocks)
• Interviewing io (anonymous mocks with real engineers)
• ​Accelerator or community groups you're part of

THE PEER GROUP DECISION (THIS ONE IS UNDERRATED)

Aditya said something that I keep coming back to.

"Tell your wins to people who will celebrate them - not compete with them."

The job search is long. It's isolating. You will have weeks where nothing moves. And in those weeks, the people around you either refuel you or drain you.

This is not soft advice. It is a strategic decision.

Build a small group - 2 or 3 people - who are also in the job search, genuinely support each other, and share resources without keeping score. Do weekly check-ins. Share interview feedback. Mock interview each other.

That inner circle will do more for your job search than any single tool or tip.

And stay away from people who make you feel like your progress is too slow or too small. That energy is expensive and you can't afford it in this market.

THE FULL ACTION CHECKLIST

If you read all of this and want to know what to do this week - here it is:

1. Audit your resume: rewrite every bullet to show outcomes, not tasks
2. Build your tiered company list: 10 dream, 20 target, 20 practice
3. Start tracking applications in a spreadsheet or Teal
4. Find 1 hackathon in the next 60 days and register
5. Schedule your first mock interview - before you feel ready
6. Post one thing you learned this week on LinkedIn
7. Follow the university recruiting pages of your top 5 companies
8. Identify 2–3 people who can be your job search inner circle

The students who crack big tech in a bad market don't have better luck.

They have a better system, and they started it earlier than everyone else.

— Yudi J

P.S. Aditya said it took him 10 months to get a job when he was switching in India, and he knew going into the US market it would be harder. He was right. But he also came prepared with notes, a solid resume, and the mindset that it was going to take time. Start now so the time works for you, not against you.